BP's force majeure on PTA, PX at Geel remains in place

03 October 2012 17:33[Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--BP's force majeure on purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and paraxylene (PX) at ?xml:namespace>Geel, Belgium, remains in place but the firm is supplying 100% committed volumes as its supplier extends its force majeure by three weeks, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

"The supplier’s initial 30 days [from 4 Sept] was extended by three weeks. But our customers’ allocation for October hasn’t changed and remains at 100%," the spokesman said.

BP declared force majeure on 5 September. It would not go into detail about the problems with the third party feedstock supplier, which is understood to be on force majeure across all xylenes, although this has not been confirmed.

BP's Geel facility has the capability to produce 1.33m tonnes/year of PTA and 631,000 tonnes/year of PX.